Communications minister Syed Abul Hossain told journalists, following a ministerial meeting, that the government was going to launch 14 buses on the Mirpur to Azimpur route for school-going children, from Jan 15, 2011.

The bus service will be launched as a part of an experimental project to ease traffic congestion. Success of the project will lead to similar launches on other routes, based on student demands, he added.

Buses will run at 10 minute intervals on the route from 6 – 9am and 11am – 3pm, in line with the start and end of 31 schools that fall along the route.

Additional communications secretary Mohammad Iftekhar Haider said that the fourteen buses could accommodate 1400 student and that the students would wait at 33 designated passenger shades. The fare will range between Tk 5-18, and might be lowered in the future.

"We will import 175 buses from China, 300 buses from South Korea, under a Economic Development Co-operation Fund (EDCF) loan, and 650 buses from India," the minister said.

He added that 1,125 new buses would start running under the BRTC by June, 2011. Hossain also claimed that 100 buses had already hit the streets in May this year.

The communications minister hoped that these buses would address traffic congestion in the capital.